War for the Planet of the Apes

RATING: A-

Who knew that the Planet of the Apes series could not only provide an actually *great* reboot--and one of the better trilogies in the last several years? It's crazy, but that's what happened. Rise gave us a surprisingly good start-up, while Dawn acted as the equivalent of The Empire Strikes Back--giving us a horrifying look at how wars start, with neither side is completely guilty or innocent in that case. And now, in the third movie, we get to see the result of that film's handiwork--the actual war, of course. 

The war's actually been going on for a couple of years when the movie starts, with casualties on both sides. The human side consists of a military group--led by a mysterious figure known only as the Colonel (Woody Harrelson). The apes--led by Caesar (Andy Serkis)--have been holding them off for some time, but not without losses. When tragedy strikes big-time, Caesar wrestles with his darker side and begins a campaign to destroy the Colonel, who is determined to wipe out the apes forever for his own reasons. 

This movie has a lot going for it, and on the whole it's pretty great. While the film feels slightly more slow-paced than the previous two, there are some very tense sequences (namely a long conversation between Caesar and the Colonel) and an "all-heck-breaks-loose" action finale. The direction from Matt Reeves overall is quite strong, with some brilliant set pieces. While there aren't a lot of non-extra human actors (most of the acting is motion-capture performances of apes), the acting overall in the film is still great. Andy Serkis really outdoes himself; perhaps in an extra effort to get his long-deserved Oscar?

While the story itself overall works just fine, there is one kind of glaring issue which I unfortunately can't go into much without giving away spoilers. There is a revelation midway through the film that attempts to connect things further to the original Planet of the Apes. But this "revelation" ends up contradicting itself a bit. I do wonder if they actually are setting up the exact events of the original movies, or if they were just making call-backs. 

Then there's also the ending. While none of it really comes as a massive shock, it still kind of leaves us with some questions--chiefly whether there are still other humans out there, and what their current state/condition is. Considering that we don't know officially yet if more entries are happening, that's a little bit of a problem. 

Despite those two main flaws, they don't hold the film back from being a strong third entry. The film continues the dynamics found in the last film (only this one is even darker), and Andy Serkis helps strongly with that--almost carrying the film by himself. It's certainly a memorable ride, and while it may not have the same impact that Dawn did, it still gets the vast majority of things done right. If it is the ending of the series (though I personally doubt it), it's a pretty good one.